The invention relates to a process for taking samples of air at a work place, and of a device for implementing this process. Its application will be found in the field for protecting persons exposed to atmospheric pollution.
The departments responsible for safety at work will control the degree of atmospheric pollution at work places, in industry in particular, by taking samples of the air breathed in by individuals at these work places where it is desired to check the level of pollution. At the present time, these samples are carried out by an independent pump worn by the individual at waist level and connected to a sampling tube which emerges near his respiratory tract.
This pump is equipped with a removable filter on which the dust and the particles present in the air breathed in by the individual are deposited. When the sampling is finished, the filter is withdrawn from the pump in order to carry out a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the products collected in the filter.
Now, it has not so far been possible to establish a correlation between the results of the blood analysis and those of the analysis of products collected on the filter of the sampling device. This absence of correlation is paradoxical, since it is in contradiction with numerous observations which have permitted the establishment, in an undeniable manner, that the composition of an individual's blood was a function of the atmosphere in which he breathed.
The sampling devices used at present work at a constant flow, and this means that they do not correctly simulate a person's breathing, since this depends closely on his physical activities. More precisely, the respiratory rhythm of an individual is correlated with his cardiac rhythm, both being functions of the physical effort made in positions which vary according to conditions.